Ethelwynne M. Quail: The Kingdom of the Gods | The Etheric Field 

Autumn Exhibitions at The College of Psychic Studies

10th October 2026 - 31st January 2027

This autumn, The College of Psychic Studies presents two connected exhibitions, exploring how artists have developed visual languages to express experiences beyond ordinary perception.  From Ethelwynne M. Quail's visionary paintings of devas and nature spirits to contemporary works concerned with memory, sensation and the relationship between people and places, the programme traces the connections between inner experiences and the world around us.

Ethelwynne M. Quail: The Kingdom of the Gods

Ethelwynne M. Quail (1903–1947) was a South African artist and sculptor associated with the Theosophical movement. Working across sculpture, drawing, painting and writing, Quail dedicated her life's work to exploring realities beyond the visible world. Entirely self-taught, she developed a distinctive artistic language inspired by nature, mythology and esoteric philosophy, giving form to the unseen forces she believed shaped the natural world.

This landmark exhibition brings together more than twenty paintings and drawings alongside archival materials, photographs and personal correspondence, marking the first public solo presentation of Quail's original works. While her sculptures were exhibited in the UK during the 1920s, including at the Royal Academy and the Walker Art Gallery - her paintings and drawings have remained largely unseen.

The exhibition focuses on her extraordinary paintings of devas - luminous, non-human intelligences associated in Theosophical thought with forces that shape the natural world, developed through her collaboration with the clairvoyant and writer Geoffrey Hodson in the mountains of South Africa during the mid-to-late 1930s. Her paintings were later reproduced posthumously in Hodson's influential book The Kingdom of the Gods (1952), but her original sketches and paintings have never been shown publicly - until now.

Vivid, strange and luminous, these works must be seen in person to be fully understood. This first public presentation offers a rare opportunity to encounter the scale and ambition of Quail's practice beyond the reproductions for which she is best known. It repositions Quail as an artist and innovator in her own right, placing her within a powerful lineage of women artists associated with Theosophy and esoteric movements - including Hilma af Klint and Ithell Colquhoun, who created new visual languages to express realities beyond ordinary perception.

Curated by Simon Grant and Jacqui McIntosh (Curator and Archivist, The College of Psychic Studies). The College and the curators gratefully acknowledge the generous support and collaboration of the family and Estate of Ethelwynne M. Quail.

The Etheric Field

Gabriella Boyd, Aleksandra Ionowa, Mila Nowacka, and Vanessa da Silva

The Etheric Field brings together four artists whose work explores the connections between inner experience and the world around us. Through painting, drawing and sculpture, the artists consider how memories, emotions and sensations shape the spaces we inhabit, and how those spaces shape us in return.

The exhibition features previously unseen works by Aleksandra Ionowa and Mila Nowacka alongside new works created especially for the show by Gabriella Boyd and Vanessa da Silva.

Drawing on Theosophical ideas of universal interconnectedness, the works of Aleksandra Ionowa (1899–1980) visualise subtle states of consciousness and relationships between spiritual experience, nature and the cosmos. Boyd's paintings suggest energetic connections between bodies and spaces, translating memory and feeling into visual form; Nowacka's intricate drawings emerge from close attention to bodily sensation and perception; and da Silva's sculptures explore the reciprocal relationship between people and place.

United by an interest in traces, impressions and the ways experience moves between bodies and environments, the works echo the Theosophical concept of thought-forms - suggesting that experiences are not confined to the self but leave impressions that extend into the world around us.

The Etheric Field is curated by Jacqui McIntosh (Curator and Archivist, The College of Psychic Studies), presented alongside Ethelwynne M. Quail: The Kingdom of the Gods.

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